Secrets
by Deelylah
Summary: Written for the "It's a Lockhart-Gardner Tradition" 2012 Summer Ficathon. Prompt: Diane/Will - Secrets. "Tell me a secret." "Why?" "Why not?"


Tick-Tock

Tick-Tock

The only indication that time is actually passing is the never-ending monotonic ticking of a clock:

Tick-Tock

Tick–Tock

It's been a long day, an exhausting day, one of the days that once you've pushed through them leave you just staring at no point in specific, thinking nothing at all while enjoying the quite of the moment. A moment when time and space have actually lost all of its meaning.

Tick-Tock

Tick - To...

"Tell me a secret." Even though Will's words aren't more than a whisper they cut through the silence like a knife. But when the echo of his words fades away, only the ticking of the clock remains:

Tick-Tock

Tick-Tock

At first Diane doesn't show any reaction to the request but just continues to look at the half-filled glass in her hand. Yet she heard the question, how couldn't she have?

Tick -Tock

It would be so easy to just tell him some story, tell him a funny line, tell a fascinating tale which has never happened.

Tick

It would be so easy to decline, to tell him to mind his own business, to just say "no".

Tock

Actually telling him a secret would be the most difficult choice here, an almost impossible task not for she doesn't trust him but due to the fact that she doesn't have that many secrets. And the few she has, she has for a reason.

Tick

"Why?" She finally lifts her head, tears her gaze away from the golden liquid and looks at her law firm partner.

Why did he ask for a secret?

What made him ask for it at that specific moment?

What made him believe she would actually tell him one?

"Why not?" He replies immediately, shrugs nonchalant then lowers his gaze to his own drink. He makes it seem like the most normal thing in the world yet _"Tell me a secret" _was no where near normal, nowhere in the vicinity of their usual topics, it was nothing she's ever expected to hear from him.

"That's not an answer." She objects to his attempt to keep his motives to himself, to make his reason for wanting to know a secret a secret. Then she turns her gaze away. What can she possibly tell him?

"You can just say "No", Diane." He explains calmly while his thumb runs along the border of the glass in his hand, "You don't have to talk your way out of this." When he looks up he finds Diane looking out the window. Lost in thoughts, lost in memories, maybe even lost in secrets.

Tick-Tock

Tick-Tock

"I didn't like you when Stern brought us together." She finally states and if the implication is that she like him now, well, so be it.

She readjusts her position on the sofa and when a laughter escapes Will's throat she raises her eyebrows at him in surprise.

"That's not a secret." He explains still chuckling a little while his thumb continues its journey on the borderline of the glass, "It was pretty obvious." He still smiles at the drink in his hand while walking down memory lane.

"No, I meant that I _really_ didn't like you." Diane says in an attempt to make him see that this is anything but funny, "On a large scale. I almost talked Stern into not bringing you in." She can still her herself discussing the topic with Jonas Stern. _"He's too young" _and_ "He's trouble." _ are only two of the many things she argued back back then but Jonas didn't care. He had made up his mind even before telling Diane about his idea. And it turned out to be a good thing that he had.

The smile has vanished from his lips when he looks up: "But why?" His amusement vanished and made room for disbelieve. Apparently it's hard for him to imagine Diane speaking up against him.

"Because I knew you were trouble." When she looks at him and their eyes lock. Immediately she knows that even after all these years William Paul Gardner is still trouble.

He just is.

Maybe always will be.

But he's grown over the years, grown in character and grown dear to her heart.

He's still trouble, she knows that.

But he's also handsome, funny, smart, a good lawyer, a friend.

But he's trouble nevertheless.

Trouble that seems to decrease with every second she continues to look into his warm brown eyes.

Tick-Tock

Tick-Tock

Tick

"I'm sorry for all inconveniences I might have caused you over the last years." He finally says and breaks the eye contact to look at his glass once more. He seems genuinely sorry and his words go straight to Diane's heart. What would she possibly do without him?

Diane smiles warmly as she puts her still half-full glass on the table and gets up. She knows the fact that she didn't finish her drink is clear sign that something isn't the way it's supposed to be but well, there is nothing she can do about it.

She has to leave.

Right away.

For her own good.

"I'm glad I didn't manage to persuade Jonas to not bring you in." She confesses with a tiny smile as she starts to leave and she can see a short smile on Will's lips as she passes by him.

When she steps around his armchair she puts her hand on his shoulder and softly squeezes it. It's a gesture of friendship, a gesture of loyalty, a silent promise that she'll always be there.

And she will.

Just not tonight.

Tonight, she has to leave.

She can feel him watching her every step as she walks through the door and into the corridor.

Yes, she has told him a secret but another one still remains her own:

She might have actually fallen for the troublemaker.

And she might actually have fallen hard for him.

But there is no way she could ever tell him that, no way this wouldn't ruin everything they've build together.

Without any particular reason she turns back when she reaches the doorway to her office and their eyes lock once again. He smiles a tired smile, then raises his glass to her and takes a sip.

The smile she returns is tired as well, maybe a little sad even.

No matter what his secrets are, no matter if he has a secret similar to hers, one thing remains for sure:

Some secrets were better off remaining what they were intended to be:

Secret.


End file.
